Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember” is still, in my view, the most gripping account of the Titanic disaster ever written. First published in 1955, it has never been out of print. Those of us who have published Titanic books more recently look at its sales figures with awe and envy.

Lord’s book is many things, among them a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the events on board the ship, based in part on interviews he did with 63 survivors, including steerage passengers whose stories were ignored in 1912. Simple and chronological only on the most superficial level, “A Night to Remember” takes an imaginative approach to time and space in which hours and minutes prove extremely malleable, the ship itself seems almost infinitely complex, and the disaster assumes order and unity only from far away.

The Titanic story—with some help from Hollywood—has ensured that the story of “Molly” Brown will remain firmly inscribed in history. But what should we remember about the real life story of Margaret Tobin Brown? Here are five things that should remain in the history books.

One: Like many women of her time, Margaret was largely self-educated. She attended grammar school until age thirteen, then went to work stripping tobacco leaves at the Garth tobacco factory. When she arrived in Leadville as a young woman, she began her education in earnest and studied with a tutor for three hours each day. She was one of the first women to attend the Carnegie Institute in New York, which was founded on the belief that anyone—regardless of gender, race, or economic or social status—could go to college. Margaret became fluent in several languages and lectured around the country on literature and politics.

They are all gone now – the Titanic survivors. No human being who stood on her decks that night remains to commemorate the event on its 100th anniversary. Their stories are with us, however, and the lessons remain.

From the moment the world learned the Titanic had sunk, we wanted to know: Who had survived? Those answers didn’t come until the evening of Thursday, April 18, 1912 – when the Cunard liner Carpathia finally reached New York with the 705 survivors who had been recovered from Titanic’s lifeboats.

Each survivor who descended the gangway had a story to tell – and the world wanted to hear them all. The New York Times sent an army of reporters to fill that need – and gave us stories such as that from Harold Bride, “Titanic’s surviving wireless man.” The junior operator relayed the story of the ship’s band. “The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I heard it first while still we were working wireless when there was a ragtime tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea with my lifebelt on, it was still on deck playing ‘Autumn.’ How they ever did it I cannot imagine.”

The evening of April 13th we had a formal Titanic Dinner. Everyone was dressed in their finest attire. Our table toasted the Captain and the evening began with its finest entrees thus far. The seven course menu had selections ranging from Quail Eggs in Aspic with Caviar, Cream of Barley Soup, Asparagus Salad, Punch Romaine, Haddock, Duckling Filet, Pork Loin or Vegetable Marrow Farci and a choice of three different desserts with the ending of assorted fresh fruits and selection of cheese. And of course wine parings throughout. I did reflect on the fabulous Titanic Dinners the volunteers prepare at The Molly Brown House Museum. I know the volunteers work very hard to entertain guests at Margaret’s house but I can only imagine the hard work and coordination to serve such a fine dinner to so many passengers. Many of the menu selections are the same The Molly Brown House Museum offers for their dinners. It was very nice to be able to experience such a grand dinner aboard the cruise ship. On this evening, we were honored to have the Chief Officer at our table for our dining. He reassured the table guests continued smooth sailing to the wreckage site.

In Margaret’s account of that very cold evening there were few who shed their warm clothing for dinner gala dress. However, many of the brides on board, who on various occasions appeared in a different Paris creation each night could not be persuaded to change. Margaret decided to retire early that evening after an evening snack at the Parisian Café.

Do we under estimate the power of water? Most of us take it for granted. We drink it, we wash with it, we swim in it, we sometimes abuse it, we nurture living things with it but do we really understand the power of it? I am gaining a better understanding day by day in my journey the true energy and strength behind water.

We have had some very bumpy rides on our first cruise to Liverpool and Belfast and we were only cruising in Irish Sea but now we are in the Atlantic Ocean. The first two days on the Atlantic were beyond bumpy. We were thrown from side to side as we were walking from place to place. When the ship tried to break through the waves it shuttered like an earthquake, and at other times we rode over and dove down the other side. It was a nice addition to a formal dinner where the glasses would rattle and you would quickly hold on to them to make sure they would not fall and break. It truly amazes me that water can leave our ship, such a large object, in the water at its mercy just hoping for it to calm down. Needless to say, to many it did not sit well personally and many decided to stay in the comfort of their cabins. Fortunately we were spared any affect and ventured out into the daily rock and roll ride on the ship.

The ship we are on is a little bit smaller than the Titanic. It is 720 feet long and 43,000 tons with the top speed of 18 knots. The Titanic was 882 ½ feet long and 53,000 tons with the top speed 24 knots. We watch on a daily basis on a monitor that provides the location of the ship in relationship to the world map. There sure is a lot of water out there and we are moving as fast as we can to the memorial site.

Here is the complete text of this article from page 11A of The Denver Post, September 12, 1985:

Images show the majesty, the mundane of aged ship

Knight Ridder News Service

Weary, wondrous, talking with the excitement of a small boy on Christmas morning, ocean explorer Robert Ballard unveiled for reporters Wednesday breathtaking new images of the luxury liner Titanic, which he discovered Sept. 1 more than two miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

“This to me was an incredible picture. Imagine … a little flagpole survives,” declared Ballard, the scientist who led the expedition that found the sunken liner southeast of Newfoundland. Indeed, there on the screen for hundreds of rapt reporters to see was a clear picture of the intact bow of the Titanic, from which sprouts a small but distinct flagpole.

Here is the complete text of this article from page 10A of The Denver Post, September 12, 1985:

Titanic: A ship in a bottle

By Ted Delaney, Denver Post Staff Writer

The images fit together to paint an eerie still life at more than 2,000 fathoms.

A scatter of corked wine bottles. A silver serving platter, gleaming in artificial light that may be the first to touch it in more than seven decades. Lumps of coal, still distinguishable on the craggy ocean floor.

There seems no doubt that Mrs. J.J. “Margaret” Brown, now known as “Unsinkable Molly,” took charge of an oar — and her lifeboat — and was helpful to fellow passengers as Titanic sank in the North Atlantic and in the weeks after.

But her real heroism may have come in the clear-eyed accounts she gave of the sinking, which have provided much of the iconic images of Titanic’s final moments we still discuss today.

At the time, The Denver Post described this as “especially” for the paper. Perhaps we can write that off to competitive hyperbole. In truth, Brown had told her story to others, including a long interview with the New York Times published two weeks earlier. The full account that made her famous was published at the end of May, 1912, in the Newport Herald. All versions were consistent in her recollection of being dropped into a lifeboat by two men with the words “you are going too,” and her eerie description of hearing the orchestra gradually fade out as Titanic slipped into the ocean.

She did save particular venom in this piece for Joseph Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line, who came to be known by some as “Coward of The Titanic.” He was aboard the ship, managed to get in a lifeboat, and then sealed himself in a cabin aboard the rescue ship Carpathia, never interacting with the other rescued passengers. The next year, he resigned from White Star and largely faded from public view for the rest of his life.

Here is the complete text of this article from page 1B of The Denver Post, April 16, 1972:

Titanic Survivor Recalls the Screaming

By ANTHONY COLLINGS

LONDON–(AP)–Some say the band kept playing as the Titanic carried 1,513 souls to the bottom of the North Atlantic 60 years ago Sunday. But Edith Russell, one of five living survivors, says it isn’t so.

“There was no music, just terrible screaming,” the 93-year old Cincinnati-born spinster said in an interview in the London hotel where she now lives.

Kristen Iversen is the author of Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction. Her forthcoming book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, will be published in June.

Daniel Allen Butler is the author of nine books and a maritime and military historian. Among his books are "Unsinkable" -- the Full Story of RMS Titanic" and "The Other Side of the Night -- the Carpathia, the Californian, and the Night the Titanic was Lost."

Janet Kalstrom became a docent at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver after a 37-year banking career. As part of her work as a docent, she dresses in period costume to play Margaret "Molly" Brown at the museum.

As part of the Denver Post's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, we've invited five experts in some aspect of the tragedy to blog for our website. Their fascination with the topic, in many ways, mirrors the enduring fascination of us all with the story of the giant oceanliner that hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Over the next month, our bloggers will provide us insights into the ship's history, the cultural context of the times and the passengers, including the indomitable Margaret "Molly" Brown of Denver who was aboard the vessel when it went down. One of our writers will even share her experience of participating in the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which sails in April from Southampton and retraces the route of the Titanic on its fateful voyage.